Top 10 microbrewery craft beers

Craft beers have been storming the stage of late, usurping the usual suspects in the race to the top of the favourite tipple stakes.

There are lots of reasons why the craft, or micro, beer has proven to be so popular but it is most likely the fact that it signifies stability in an uncertain world. Traditional values become more ‘valuable’, historically, the harder things seem to get in life – providing a link to a more secure, certain past; almost in the same way that we always seem more at ease in familiar surroundings.

The craft beer is traditionally made, from top to bottom, in microbreweries (or, craft breweries) – securing a little piece of traditional values in every bottle.

Here we present you with our favourite craft beer packaging designs, so far…

Warsteiner Artist Collection

For an unusual take on beer packaging design, look no further than Warsteiner. These designs are as unique as they are unifying, intricate and exquisite as they are bold and colourful.

Each of the artists take their own place along a design timeline, with each of them being tasked with drawing inspiration from the renaissance period, right up to the modern era and everything else in between!

Wotton Brewery

Capturing a look that would appeal to the die hard real ale fan base, as well as enticing new and so called ‘amateur’ ale drinkers, was an important consideration when designing the labeling for this range of traditional ales.

Sporting a look that would not be out of place in the month of November, with the deep rich colouring of the glass, these craft beers are simply irresistible!

AleBrowar

Hot on the heels of three bearded men, come three equally hirsute ladies. It isn’t clear why the ladies here sport such luxurious facial growth, but the advertising agency presumably had good reason. The beer itself is Polish, and the brewers intended to widen the horizons of the beer drinking Polish, bringing them traditionally crafted beer fused with not so traditional labelling – showing both sides of the same hairy coin.

If nothing else, the package design of this craft beer is memorable and is sure to leave a lasting impression, and perhaps induce a few chuckles along the way?

Camden town brewery

Bold, striking and colourful – this is craft beer packaging that will not go unnoticed on the shelf for very long!

Created by lager lovers, for lager lovers, this craft beer shows that it is not just ale getting the microbrewery treatment. Traditional, handcrafted beer is an artform in of itself, and the typography in use on the labels is an extension of the kind of level of attention to detail that is needed.

Brewdog

Mind numbingly bored with the industrialised beer scene, Martin & James founded Brewdog – dogged by scandal, sensationalist headlines as well as enjoying huge success, Brewdog became an independent brewery to reckon with.

Brewdog packaging design is as distinctive as the beer itself, never afraid to stand out and say exactly what it is, which makes a refreshing change, we think.

Oliphant Brewing

Taking the minimalist, understated approach for the Oliphant Brewing company, the package designers took inspiration from ancient hieroglyphs and culture – putting an image to the mystical creature, created by the company, in the form of a stylized skull against a black background.

This sharp contrast makes for an eye catching design, and together with the imaginative names of the individual beers, “Land Eels vs. Sea Snakes” and ‘Milkman Manbaby”, these bottles are not going to be forgotten quickly.

Blacktail Brewery

Needing a distinctive branding and typography to help them stand out from the thickening crowd, the founders of the Blacktail Brewery headed back to their roots.

Having set up business in an old, disused bowling alley that they had purchased, the pins and bowling ball seemed like the natural, logical solution – and they were not wrong. The sharp angled, harsh lettering is in perfect contrast to the soft, lightly coloured pastel colours of the labels themselves.

Pang Pang Brewery

If, when looking at the imagery for the Pang Pang Brewery line up of beers, you picture beaches, palm trees and hairy chested men sporting ‘70s style facial growth, then you are most likely not alone.

The design concept was based on Tiki imagery, golden beaches and sparkling blue oceans. Pang Pang beer is marketed as the summer beer, and with branding like this who would argue?

Rogue Beer

Beer is associated with fun, or should be, and good times with good friends – Rogue Beer label designs take that basic idea and run off into the hills with it, shrieking with laughter the whole way.

To say that the branding design for this craft beer is ‘fun’ is possibly an understatement, with likely the most humorous image / name combination ever to grace a beer bottle!

The Kernel Brewery

There is something very rustic and natural about the branding surrounding The Kernel Brewery, with the minimalism seemingly more deliberate than what you would usually expect to find – especially for a craft beer.

This craft beer is bottled ‘live’, meaning that it is still being conditioned, or grown, while sat on the shelf waiting to be picked up a craft beer enthusiast.

A return to traditional values

Craft beer, and the microbreweries that are responsible for them, seem to be thriving in an era that has seen more publicans close their doors than at any other time in recent history. Perhaps this rebirth of the small, independant and traditional craftsman can induce a resurgence in other areas too, giving hope where before there was just acceptance?

10 delicious craft beers and their independant microbreweries, with 10 fantastic designs. Which one is your favourite?

They are all amazing, wonderfully done and even very humorous in some cases – it’s hard to choose a favourite ourselves, so we’ll just say that we love them all!